Thunderbolts #76 is, in every meaningful sense, the beginning of an entirely new series - and one doomed to early cancellation by the insane decision to publish it as a continuation of the completely unrelated series Thunderbolts.

Apparently editor Andrew Lis has compared this to the relaunch of X-Force, but that misses the point on two levels.  One, the new series that took over X-Force at least had some discernible connection with the name (whereas the name "Thunderbolts" has nothing whatever to do with this story).  Two, early issues of the relaunched X-Force were all about presenting the new characters as undeserving interlopers; thus, taking over another title played into the themes.  This is just a completely different series, and the result is the worst of both worlds - it alienates existing readers of Thunderbolts, and the name does nothing to attract the readers who might like the new series.

Retailers appear to agree with this analysis, given the dire orders for issue #76, and the appearance on the cover of a favourable quote by Kurt Busiek - creator of the team who used to appear into his series - suggests a recognition that this may have been a horrible publicity misfire.

But Busiek is right - judged as what it is, the first issue of a completely new series, this actually isn't bad.  The comments about Fight Club aren't desperately informative; this is actually a series about underground bare-knuckle boxing, and the lives of down-at-heel supervillains who are reduced to making a living from competing.  While this is strictly speaking still illegal, it does at least take them out of the category of "villainous."  This is supposed to represent the thematic link with the original series, by the way, which was about supervillains trying to redeem themselves.

The lead character is Daniel Axum, a former supervillain making a dismally unsuccessful attempt to go straight, and who is fairly obviously going to get drawn into the fighting circuit in future issues.  Alongside him we have the Armadillo, formerly a very minor Captain America villain, and now the New Jersey Regional Champion in underground fighting.  A corrupt promoter and a manipulative coach round out the cast.  John Arcudi establishes his characters well, and I've got to admit to being interested in where he's going with this.  It's a strong idea, with plenty of potential.

Artist Francisco Ruiz Velasco does excellent and stylish work here.  His exaggerated and caricatured characters are balanced by more subdued colouring (although Velasco takes full advantage of Marvel's non-Code status to remind us that the colour of blood is red).  His character designs are distinctive, and the deceptively simple linework shows a great sense of body language.  Hopefully we'll see more of him.

It's really quite good, and if it had been launched as a new series in its own right, it would be getting a fairly warm reception.  As it is, it's tanking from the start.  It's a shame to see a decent concept hobbled by marketing which completely misreads the mood of the market, but there you go. 

Rating: A-

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